SEOUL, South Korea — Samsung Electronics said Tuesday that it is stopping production of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones permanently, a day after stopping global sales of the ill-fated devices amid reports that batteries were catching fire.
The South Korean company said in a regulatory filing that it decided to stop manufacturing Note 7s for the sake of consumer safety.
Samsung is struggling to regain consumer trust after a first round of recalls that prompted criticism both for the faulty devices and for the company's handling of the problem.
After the earlier recall, the company said it had identified a manufacturing defect in the batteries of its top-of-the-line smartphone.
It started shipping new Note 7 phones that were supposed to be safer. But reports that even the replacements were catching fire led Samsung to announce it was stopping sales of the devices.
Authorities in the U.S. and South Korea are still investigating why even the replacement Note 7 phones that Samsung equipped with a safer battery are catching fire. An official at the South Korean safety agency said the replacement phones may have a defect that is different from the problem with the original Note 7s.
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.